Three Marketing Vanity Metrics (And What to Measure Instead)

Marketing vanity metrics are easy to pop into spreadsheets and presentations. If you show hard numbers to an uninformed audience (like a room filled with CEOs), you could look like you’re doing a great job.

However, when you’re up for review with a company that isn’t making any money, all of that vanity could come back to bite you.

Measuring real outcomes takes time, and it’s much harder than grabbing a vanity metric. However, the time you spend on getting meaningful data could save your job in the end.

Here’s how to get started.

Vain: Social Media Followers

Social media marketers like to keep close tabs on how many people see their content. If they can prove they have more fans right now than ever before, they might convince their bosses that their work is moving the needle.

There’s just one problem.

There’s no proof that your social media followers are real people. Many of them could be bots.

Similarly, there’s no proof that your followers are actually buyers. They could be competitors who want to know what you’re up to.

Valuable: Referrals from Social

If you can’t measure social media followers, what can you measure? I suggest the number of referrals to a specific part of your website from a social media post.

Here’s one idea. Create a landing page for social that does not appear in either search or your main site navigation. Share the link on one social media channel at a time (such as Facebook one week, Instagram another week, and TikTok the third).

A measurement of visitors to this page will prove that your social media posts are driving action. If this particular page is responsible for sales, you’ve done even better to prove your worth.

Vain: Website Visitors

Many of us like to watch how many people come to our websites. (Heck, I look at this number myself for this site.) However, a visitor count is really easy to manipulate.

Once again, your visitors could be crawlers or bots. Your competitors could also check out your site to see what you’re up to and how they might beat you in the future.

While it’s not a terrible idea to ensure that people are visiting your site and checking out your work, visits alone can’t tell you if you’re really providing value for your company.

Valuable: Email Signups

Instead of a vanity metric like visits, track an actual action that comes from a visit. Here’s one of my favorites: email signups.

Someone who visits your site and then opts to get regular email is sending a powerful value signal. Not only have you provided something useful right now, but your visitor is eager to hear what you have to say in the future.

If your email marketing messages are filled with great content (this blog can help), you’ll soon convert those regular readers into dedicated buyers.

Vain: Bounce Rate

A bounce rate is a measurement of people who visit your site, stay for just a moment, and then leave. Some marketing teams use a small bounce rate as proof that they’re delivering compelling content. (People want to read it all!) This is a mistake.

A high bounce rate could mean (shocking as it sounds) that you’re delivering a great experience. People who come to your site can find what they want, so they don’t need to waste time looking around. It could also mean that you’ve pushed people into an action (like a purchase) really efficiently.

There’s one exception. If you’ve created a simple landing page (like a form), and it has a high bounce rate, something isn’t working quite right and needs a tweak. But a bounce on a simple answer page? That’s not always a problem.

Valuable: Conversion Rate

A conversion rate is a much better web page marketing metric. How many people filled out your form, bought your product, or scheduled a demo? How many people did something that will, in time, make your company money? Conversions matter more than anything else, and that should always be the metric you measure.

Finding what’s considered a conversion can be tricky. But in general, if you think about an action that will make you money, you’re on the right track.

Need Some Help with Marketing Metrics?

Whether you’re looking for content that converts—or coaching about what a conversion might look like—I can help! Reach out, and let’s talk about how to get started.